Pamphlet Series

December 4, 1996

The Role of the IMF: Financing and Its Interactions with Adjustment and Surveillance

Description: Against the background of the changing international economic environment, this pamphlet examines the general rationale for IMF financial support and the relationship between such support and IMF surveillance in carrying out the IMF's responsibility to seek to avoid and help to correct maladjustments in countries balance of payments. It analyzes the circumstances in which IMF financing continues to have an important role, draws possible lessons for the role of the IMF from the Mexican financial crisis, and discusses the future need for IMF resources.

December 22, 1995

Guidelines for Fiscal Adjustment

Description: This pamphlet considers some of the issues and concerns that underlie the IMF's approach to fiscal adjustment-namely, the ways governments can use their fiscal stabilization and structural policies to achieve macroeconomic objectives relating to growth, inflation, and the balance of payments. It covers such issues as government taxing, spending, and borrowing, as well as some fiscal aspects of institutional change, and offers practical policy options for consideration.

June 15, 1992

The Unique Nature of the Responsibilities of the International Monetary Fund

Description: Bretton Woods constituted the first formal international agreement on a code of conduct applicable for economic transactions among countries that had subscribed to it. This pamphlet focuses on only one aspect of that code of conduct: the norms that have guided the conduct of financial and exchange transactions among countries, as they have been presented in the original Articles of Agreement of the IMF and their subsequent amendments. The paper outlines the fundamental characteristics of the IMF, examines the direct link between surveillance and conditionalilty, explores potential risks and dangers that might compromise certain fundamental features of the institution, and presents a set of ideas and proposals to ensure the activities of the IMF maintain continuity of its institutional uniqueness.

September 15, 1987

SDRs, Currencies, and Gold: Seventh Survey of New Legal Developments

Description: This paper presents the seventh survey of developments in international and national monetary law and practice involving special drawing rights (SDRs), currencies, and gold. The IMF has adopted three published decisions on surveillance over the exchange rate policies of members since the publication of Pamphlet No. 40 in 1983. The list of currencies remained unchanged because the share of the sixth largest exporter of goods and services in the world total (Italy) was below the share of the member with the fifth largest share (United Kingdom).

Notes: English version reprinted 1992.

September 15, 1985

Technical Assistance and Training Services of the International Monetary Fund

Description: This paper describes technical assistance and training services of the IMF. The paper highlights that the IMF’s responsibility for providing this assistance and its member countries’ need to obtain it, arises out of the importance of good economic and financial management and the recognition of the close relationship that exists between domestic financial policies and procedures and balance-of-payments management. The types of assistance provided, typically in the fields of central banking, fiscal matters, and economic and financial statistics, reflect this link.

Notes: English version reprinted 1991.

September 15, 1984

The General Arrangements to Borrow

Description: This paper examines the role of the IMF’s first and longest-lasting borrowing arrangements, the General Arrangements to Borrow (GAB), from their inception in 1961–62 to their fundamental reform and enlargement in 1983. The General Arrangements were a product of the times. They were designed to help the IMF deal with growing strains in the par value system caused by the underlying balance-of-payments problems of the two major reserve centers, the United States and the United Kingdom. The General Arrangements were strengthened by the association of Switzerland, a nonmember of the IMF, in 1964.

Notes: English version reprinted March 1986 and March 1995.

September 15, 1983

SDRs, Currencies, and Gold: Sixth Survey of New Legal Developments

Description: This paper presents the sixth survey of developments in international and national monetary law and practice involving special drawing rights (SDRs), currencies, and gold. The paper highlights that a member’s currency held by the IMF in accounts other than the General Resources Account is not subject under the IMF’s Articles of Agreement to the principle of maintenance of value in terms of the SDR that applies to currency held in the IMF’s General Resources Account. The IMF has express or implied powers to invest holdings in accounts to which no obligation to maintain value is attached.

Notes: English version reprinted 1985.

September 15, 1981

Fund Conditionality: Evolution of Principles and Practices

Description: This paper examines the principles and practices of conditionality as they have evolved and as they are currently applied. The paper discusses the rationale of the concept of conditionality and brings out its theoretical underpinnings as well as its economic policy implications. The paper traces the practices for conditionality’s implementation that have been developed in the IMF over more than three decades to assist members in adjusting to an increasingly difficult and complex environment. The paper also discusses a series of issues that have arisen in the context of the application of conditionality.

Notes: English and French versions reprinted 1992 and 1986, respectively. Spanish version reprinted 1984.